People

Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing

	Professor Charlotte Clarke Executive Director
Since 2019, Professor Clarke has served as Executive Dean for our Faculty of Social Sciences and Health. Previously she was Dean International for the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. She has been a sub-panel member for RAE 2008, REF 2014 and REF 2021. In her research, Professor Clarke has worked to address health inequalities and stigma and has influenced international health and social care policy and practice in relation to dementia. Professor Clarke is also serving as Associate PVC (Health) and will work across the University and with external partners to encourage and support world-leading health research and education, helping more people to thrive in the places they live, locally and globally. She will work with health practitioners, researchers, funders, local and national government.
	Dr Amir Atapour-Abarghouei Co-Director
Amir is an Assistant Professor in Computer Science at Durham University. His interdisciplinary research spans artificial intelligence, deep learning, computer vision, and computational modelling, with applications in healthcare, robotics and environmental monitoring. His work on machine learning-driven anomaly detection has been integrated into industrial AI solutions, and he has contributed to international projects on neuromorphic vision and autonomous systems. Amir supports the Institute’s interdisciplinary mission by fostering collaborations at the intersection of AI and health, developing innovative methodologies for medical imaging, bias mitigation in AI-based applications and data-driven approaches to public health challenges. His research is underpinned by a commitment to ethical AI and the responsible deployment of intelligent systems for societal benefit.
	Dr Jennifer Badham Associate Director
Jennifer is Assistant Professor in Social Data Science and Programme Lead for MDS (Health Data Science) in the Durham Research Methods Centre. Much of Jennifer's research concerns the ways in which social structure shapes the transmission of ideas, disease or behaviour. With expertise in complexity science, Jen holds the coordinating position with the NIHR Research Support Service (RSS).
	Professor Barbara Bechter Co-Director
Barbara is a Professor in Human Resource Management at Durham University Business School (DUBS). She is a social scientist, she developed and led multidisciplinary projects and managed international project teams. With her international and interdisciplinary research, she contributes to policy debates around new forms of employment and their regulation. She is especially interested in the link between employment and health. Her research extends beyond the workplace by investigating interventions and support provided by social partner organisations at organisational, national and transnational level to improve the health and safety of workers.
	Professor Brian Castellani Co-Director
Brian joined the Department of Sociology at Durham University in 2018. Trained as a sociologist, clinical psychologist and methodologist, he is also an Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry (Northeast Ohio Medical University); Co-Editor of the Routledge Complexity in Social Science series; Co-Editor of the International Journal of Social Research Methodology and on the editorial board for Complexity, Governance and Networks. His areas of research are the complexities of place and health, communities and global civil society, computational modeling and mixed-methods, complexity theory and policy evaluation and big data and digital sociology Brian is resolutely international and interdisciplinary in his work, regularly publishing with colleagues from across the entire academy – from maths and physics to medicine and environmental science – and around the world. Brian's work is also juxtaposed between the theoretical, methodological and applied, with his research, at any given moment, moving variously from one emphasis to the other.
	Andrea Lambell Co-Director
Andrea is a Post-doctoral Research Associate on the Reimagining Governance project which aims to evaluate the effectiveness of research governance across Durham University. She was born and bred in County Durham and came to the university in 2018 after previous careers in the North-East as a regional journalist and a hospice massage therapist, during which time she completed an interdisciplinary Open University BSc (Hons) degree. At Durham she gained an MA in Research Methods (Anthropology), and a Medical Anthropology PhD investigating the effects of PPE and distancing on health and social care communication during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the consequences for those who experienced its effects. She was co-chair of the Anthropology First Generation Scholars Group between 2021-24, and was one of its student-lead research team which conducted the ‘Belonging at Durham’ study investigating the role of social class and UK home region in students’ experiences of inclusion at Durham University. Andrea’s research interests include social justice, palliative care, and the embodied experience of communication.
	Professor Mark Stoutenberg Co-Director
Mark is a Professor of Public Health in the Department of Sport and Exercise Sciences. Mark joined Durham University in January 2024 after spending the first 15 years of his career in the United States. Mark’s area of methodological expertise is implementation science, through which he strives to promote the adoption and integration of evidence-based practices, interventions and policies into health care and community settings. Mark has experience conducting research and educational programming involving physical activity, non-communicable diseases, and global health. More specifically, he examines strategies to connect patients from clinical settings to supportive community resources (clinic-community linkages) for health and wellness by forming partnerships with community health organisations leading to collaborative research projects involving healthcare systems, administrators, and providers aimed at improving the health of local residents. Mark also works with the Exercise is Medicine initiative, an initiative to integrate physical activity as a standard of patient care in health systems around the world.
	Professor Carolyn Summerbell Associate Director
Carolyn's research expertise is in the area of child public health, with a focus on physical activity and diet. Much of this research focuses on interventions for the promotion of healthy growth and the prevention of childhood obesity and health inequalities. Her research is framed within a complex and adaptive whole systems approach. The methodological tools which she uses include the Cochrane Collaboration methods for systematic reviewing controlled studies alongside those designed for reviewing other types of studies which she has helped develop. Carolyn was the Deputy Director of Fuse (2015 - 2025), The Centre for Translational Research in Public Health. This research centre is a member of the School for Public Health Research (SPHR) which is funded by the National Institute for Public Health Research (NIHR) in England, UK, of which Carolyn is the Durham University lead.
	Dr Jonathan Wistow Co-Director
Jonathan is an Associate Professor and joined the Department of Sociology as a Research Fellow in 2007, working in the field of health inequalities. His research in this area focuses on the application of qualitative comparative analysis to health inequalities and links to broader debates about governance and public policy implementation. He subsequently worked on a number of projects concentrating on climate change adaptation in health and social care systems. He recently completed a book called Social Policy, Political Economy and the Social Contract that ties together a range of diverse but related research interests, through employing complexity and social contract theory to understand the trajectory of the political economy and its interrelationship with policy. He is now working on research into the UK Government’s Levelling Up agenda alongside ongoing research into health inequalities and the impact of air pollution on brain health.
	Mrs Suzi Boyd Institute Manager
Suzi is the Senior Officer of the Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing. Suzi is responsible for the day to day running of the Institute, dealing with matters pertaining to HR, budget, committee support and management, project support and Fellowship support. She is responsible for the Institute website, fortnightly newsletter and social media accounts.